Ricciardo misses podium as a new Aussie hope emerges.

Motorsport: Hamilton wins in France

Ricciardo misses podium as a new Aussie hope emerges.

Motorsport: Hamilton wins in France

25 Jun 2018David McCowen

Lewis Hamilton referenced a dominant World Cup performance by the English football team when crossing the line to take victory on “a beautiful Sunday” in the French grand prix.

But while lowly Panama managed to get on the scoreboard in their 6-1 loss to a galaxy of stars from the English Premier League, Ferrari and Red Bull had no answer to Hamilton, who took an easy lights-to-flag victory and reclaimed his place at the top of the championship.

Hamilton’s path to the chequered flag was cleared by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who rammed into the back of Mercedes man Valtteri Bottas in an unfortunate piece of driving on the opening lap.

French fans were also dismayed to see countrymen Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon tangle on the first tour of the circuit, though Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg won points-paying positions for the Gallic marque as a result of the melee.

With Bottas slowed by a puncture and Vettel delayed by a pit lane penalty, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo settled into second and third place behind Hamilton’s runaway Mercedes.

Ricciardo lost third place to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who now holds a record for the number of podiums scored after his most recent race win in 2013.

Hamilton leads the driver’s standings on 145 points, ahead of Vettel on 131 points - each with three race victories. Ricciardo is third with 96 points thanks to a pair of race wins.

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Australia’s Joey Mawson took a maiden podium in the GP3 Series F1 support race in Paul Ricard, starting from the front row before staying out of trouble to claim an important result.

Mawson finished third to Ferrari young gun Callum Ilott and Pedro Piquet, son of former F1 champion Nelson Piquet, while driving for the Arden Motorsport outfit founded by Red Bull F1 team manager Christian Horner.

Mawson, who hopes to follow in the wheel tracks of Daniel Ricciardo, said the weekend was “very positive”.

“I had a really bad start. I bogged down but I just recovered it,” he said.

“After that I tried to keep up with the first two guys.”

“Let’s hope I can get a win soon.”

The GP3 Series goes to Austria’s Red Bull Ring this weekend.

IndyCar

Will Power’s hopes of winning a second IndyCar title were dented by engine failure in the Kohler Grand Prix of Road America. The Australian led the series standings after his breakthrough victory in May’s Indy 500, but lost ground to key rivals when his Chevrolet engine failed on Sunday.

Power’s Penske teammate Josef Newgarden took victory this week ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon, who now leads championship standings well clear of fifth-placed Power.

WTCR

A race-stopping crash which damaged just about every car in the WTCR field dominated headlines when the touring car series went to Portugal.

Morocco’s Mehdi Bennani said the chain-reaction crash which started at the head of the field on a narrow, concrete-lined street course was “actually the biggest crash I have seen”, and that competitors were lucky to avoid serious injury.

Hyundai and Peugeot shared honours across three races, with Hyundai’s Yvan Muller and Thed Bjork winning the first and last races either side of a reverse-grid win for Peugeot’s Mato Homola in the second heat.

Muller leads the championship standings for Hyundai with five rounds to go.

Pikes Peak

Volkswagen won the day at Pikes Peak with a record-setting run to the top of Colorado’s most famous mountain for Romain Dumas in VW’s battery-powered I.D. R prototype. You can read all about that here.

Australian competitors had a mixed day, with ex-pat journalist Rennie Scaysbrook coming agonisingly close to victory in the top motorcycle class aboard a KTM 1290 Super Duke R.

“To lose by six tenths of a second after 10 minutes of mountain racing is hard to take,” Scaysbrook said on social media.

“I wanted to win this one so, so badly. That’s racing, I guess.”

Scaysbrook finished second to Carlin Dunne, who won his fourth Pikes Peak motorcycle title aboard a Ducati Multistrada.

Australia’s Tony Quinn took a top 10 result in the car category with an impressive run in his wild, Nissan GT-R-powered Ford Focus hatch.